Israelis believe Palestinian state will see light, but support it less

Around two thirds of the Israeli public believe that a Palestinian state will see light within the next decade but the support for such a state has dropped from 51 percent in 1997 to 44 percent in 1998. The figures were included in a survey conducted by the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv University and sponsored by Prof. Asher Arian.

The survey showed that two thirds of the public in Israel believe that the peace process has strengthened the personal security of citizens of the state, but this figure is also lower than it was in a comparable 1997 poll. A poll of 1207 Jewish adult respondents, not from kibbutzes, hotbeds of left wing and social Israelis, or settlements, strongholds of right wing Israelis, found that the public believes that the situation in terms of personal security under the Netanyahu government is akin to what it was under the Rabin and Peres governments.

The survey found that this year there is a decrease of 10 percent in terms of respondents who believe that the Palestinians want peace.